The Influence of Jock Turcot on the Canadian Higher Education Student Movement

This document-based study examines contributions and lasting influences of Francis James “Jock” Turcot on the Canadian higher education student movement. Primary sources from the University of Ottawa Archives and past University of Ottawa student movements are used to illustrate that Canadian student union independence was a hard-won political struggle by students like Turcot, which allowed Canadian student unions to substantially improve their capacities in subsequent decades. Turcot’s prioritisation of common ground between student and non-student stakeholders from a position of autonomous student democracy, as well as his commitment to student advocacy and the outward application of the student experience to benefit society, culminate in his Declaration of the Canadian Student that was passed by delegates of the fall 1965 Canadian Union of Students conference, whereupon it influenced national directions of student organising. Turcot made the ultimate sacrifice so University of Ottawa’s student union could be free from university administration control.